{"id":318922,"date":"2025-11-28T16:47:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T16:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/318922\/"},"modified":"2025-11-28T16:47:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T16:47:08","slug":"zelenskyys-chief-of-staff-andrii-yermak-resigns-as-ukraine-corruption-investigations-widen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/318922\/","title":{"rendered":"Zelenskyy’s chief of staff Andrii Yermak resigns as Ukraine corruption investigations widen"},"content":{"rendered":"

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) \u2014 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy<\/a> announced Friday the resignation of his powerful chief of staff, Andrii Yermak, who was also the country\u2019s lead negotiator in talks with the U.S<\/a>, after Yermak\u2019s residence was searched by anti-corruption<\/a> investigators.<\/p>\n

The unprecedented search<\/a> at the heart of Ukraine\u2019s government comes at a time when Kyiv is under intense U.S. pressure to sign a peace deal nearly four years after Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Yermak has been a trusted confidant of Zelenskyy\u2019s for years, and the Ukrainian leader has long resisted pressure to replace him. His departure is a blow for the Ukrainian leader that risks disrupting his negotiating strategy.<\/p>\n

In a nod to likely controversy over Yermak\u2019s long stay at his side, Zelenskyy\u2019s said Russia was waiting for Ukraine to make missteps and upset the delicate and tense peace negotiations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have a right to retreat or argue between ourselves. If we lose unity, we risk losing everything, ourselves, Ukraine, our future,\u201d Zelenskyy said. \u201cWe must unite, we must hold on. We have no other choice. We won\u2019t have another Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yermak\u2019s name did not appear on a list of officials that Zelenskyy said would make up the Ukrainian delegation for the next round of negotiations with the United States.<\/p>\n

Zelenskyy said that \u201cto preserve our internal strength, there must be no reasons to be distracted at anything else except for defense of Ukraine. I don\u2019t want anybody to be questioning Ukraine, and that\u2019s why we have today\u2019s decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his nightly address, Zelenskyy announced that he was \u201cresetting\u201d the presidential office. He said Yermak had submitted his resignation and that he would begin consultations Saturday to appoint a new chief of staff.<\/p>\n

Two national agencies fighting corruption in Ukraine said their search targeted Yermak. Oleksii Tkachuk, a spokesperson for Yermak, said the anti-graft agencies had not served Yermak a notice of suspicion, meaning he was not a suspect in an investigation. Yermak was not told what the searches related to, Tkachuk said.<\/p>\n

Yermak confirmed the search of his apartment inside the presidential compound in downtown Kyiv, where checkpoints limit public access. Media reports said Yermak\u2019s office was also searched, but investigators declined to comment on that.<\/p>\n

It was not clear where Zelenskyy or Yermak were at the time of the morning raid. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe investigators are facing no obstacles,\u201d Yermak wrote on the messaging app Telegram. He said he was cooperating fully with them and his lawyers were present.<\/p>\n

Energy sector scandal<\/p>\n

The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor\u2019s Office are Ukrainian anti-corruption watchdogs. They are currently leading a major investigation<\/a> into a $100 million energy sector scandal involving top Ukrainian officials that has dominated domestic headlines in recent weeks.<\/p>\n

It was not clear if the searches were connected to the case, and a spokesperson for the NABU, Anton Tatarnikov, declined to comment, citing legal restrictions on revealing details on an ongoing probe. <\/p>\n

The head of Ukraine\u2019s parliamentary anti-corruption committee, Anastasiia Radina, said on social media that Yermak\u2019s resignation was \u201cbetter late than never.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mykyta Porturaev, a lawmaker with Zelenskyy\u2019s party who last week called for Yermak\u2019s resignation and for a cross-party government to be established, said the anti-corruption raid deepened Ukraine\u2019s political crisis.<\/p>\n

Yermak \u201cdefinitely had political responsibility,\u201d Porturaev told The Associated Press. \u201cOf course he had to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the European Commission, Guillaume Mercier, told Ukrainian news outlet Radio Svoboda on Friday that they were following developments closely and that the searches showed that Ukraine\u2019s anti-corruption agencies were working. He added that fighting corruption was central to the country\u2019s European Union accession.<\/p>\n

Investigators suspect that Tymur Mindich<\/a>, a one-time business partner of Zelenskyy, was the plot\u2019s mastermind. Mindich has fled the country, with any criminal proceedings against him likely to be carried out in absentia. Two top government ministers have resigned in the scandal.<\/p>\n

Two of Yermak\u2019s former deputies \u2014 Oleh Tatarov and Rostyslav Shurma \u2014 left the government in 2024 after watchdogs investigated them for financial wrongdoing. A third deputy, Andrii Smyrnov, was investigated for bribes and other wrongdoing but still works for Yermak.<\/p>\n

Political turmoil for Zelenskyy<\/p>\n

The scandal has heaped more problems<\/a> on Zelenskyy as he seeks continued Western support for Ukraine\u2019s war effort and tries to ensure continued foreign funding. The European Union, which Ukraine wants to join, has told Zelenskyy he must crack down on graft.<\/p>\n

Zelenskyy faced an unprecedented rebellion from his own lawmakers earlier this month after investigators published details of their energy sector investigation.<\/p>\n

Although Yermak was not accused of any wrongdoing, several senior lawmakers in Zelenskyy\u2019s party said Yermak should take responsibility for the debacle in order to restore public trust. Some said that if Zelenskyy didn\u2019t fire him, the party could split, threatening the president\u2019s parliamentary majority. But Zelenskyy defied them.<\/p>\n

Zelenskyy urged Ukrainians to unite and \u201cstop the political games\u201d in light of the U.S. pressure to reach a settlement with Russia.<\/p>\n

Yermak met Zelenskyy over 15 years ago when he was a lawyer venturing into the TV production business and Zelenskyy was a famous Ukrainian comedian and actor.<\/p>\n

He oversaw foreign affairs as part of Zelenskyy\u2019s first presidential team and was promoted to chief of staff in February 2020.<\/p>\n

Yermak has accompanied Zelenskyy on every trip abroad since Russia\u2019s invasion in February 2022, and the president\u2019s trust in him has made Yermak\u2019s power appear almost untouchable.<\/p>\n

Domestically, officials describe Yermak as Zelenskyy\u2019s gatekeeper, and he is widely believed to have chosen all top government appointees, including prime ministers and ministers.<\/p>\n

Individuals connected to Yermak and the president\u2019s office have come under investigation before.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Follow AP\u2019s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/russia-ukraine<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KYIV, Ukraine (AP) \u2014 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced Friday the resignation of his powerful chief of staff,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":318923,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,163370,1927,37948,1076,5335,793,163369,7931,3,111,963,15324,1208,40479,21,19,22,20,25,24,40477,965],"class_list":["post-318922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-anton-tatarnikov","tag-ap-top-news","tag-corruption","tag-europe","tag-european-union","tag-general-news","tag-guillaume-mercier","tag-kyiv","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-russia-ukraine-war","tag-scandals","tag-ukraine","tag-ukraine-government","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-volodymyr-zelenskyy","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=318922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/318923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}